Now is the hour to back Haiti Couleurs for Cheltenham
THERE are only three weeks to go until the Cheltenham Festival and it’s time we turned our attention to one of the week’s handicaps.
The National Hunt Chase wasn’t previously a handicap, of course, and is one of the Festival races whose conditions have been altered for this year’s meeting.
Once it was a playground for Grade One-level horses campaigned away from the deeper waters of the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, with only amateurs allowed to ride – now it’s a 0-145 handicap with professionals able to take part.
These alterations to the race have not been universally popular, but to me, it’s made the contest more competitive for punters, and I think I’ve found a bet.
Gavin Cromwell’s Now Is The Hour is the current favourite and had been a real plunge horse for this since his eye-catching fourth at Navan in January.
However, I see him as a real talking horse who’s not shown a great deal of form this season, and he’s certainly not value at around 3/1.
I’m much more taken by the next horse in the market, HAITI COULEURS, and although it’s been five years since Rebecca Curtis’ last winner at the Cheltenham Festival, I can see that changing this year.
The eight-year-old has been nicely progressive this season for the Pembrokeshire trainer, winning twice over fences, including over a staying three-mile-one-and-a-half-furlong trip at Cheltenham in December.
He was last seen when a creditable third in a typically open Newbury Saturday handicap hurdle, in so doing likely preserving his chase handicap mark for the Festival, and at 5/1 with bet365, he rates as a bet for Cheltenham with course form under his belt.
POINTERS ANTE-POST
Haiti Couleurs 5/1 National Hunt Chase, Cheltenham Festival